1994 Mainship 40 help

I just purchased this boat and launched after it was sitting on the hard for 15+ months. Survey showed no hull issues, and sea trial went well. There was water in the aft bilge but found the issue with flax on stbd engine - flax dried out after sitting so long. Now that boat has been in water for a week, the flax is working fine and aft is dry. However forward bilge is a mess. I took 4 gallons out of it last night, salt water, and was able to dry bilge. I removed shower sump and rebedded the bilge pump screws. Found that the water is coming in from now under the holding tank. Tank is empty and forward of this bildge there are no more thru hulls. Front v Berth is all dry!?!? Any ideas on where to look for salt water intrusion? I’m concerned that hull is bleeding as the bilge is filled again, but not deep enough to trigger float switch. Just seems like a lot of water to just be sitting there. Confusing part is that the 4 gallons stabilizes and does not get any deeper so the breach does not have enough force cause the pressure equalized. I plugged the rear flow with a towel to prevent flow into rear bilge so the water is just sitting there. Any help?

Is the water appear to be coming up from the screws or running down from above the bottom of the bilge? If it is coming down you can line the area with clean paper towels to see where it is coming from. The towels will change when they get wet even if they dry out before you can check them.

Some boats have a hollow keel area that can get filled with water and leak up into the bilge area. We had a Trojan that did this.

Can you suck up the water with a wet vac, being careful because vet vacs are not ignition protected and any gas fumes can cause an explosion, and watch to see where it is coming in from.

Good luck.